


Deep Fear

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-13 23:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11770287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Alessa discovers that Dunya is afraid of water, and Dunya learns what fear feels like. Dunya belongs to star-stable-is-awesome on tumblr and Alessa belongs to sso-duskhill on tumblr.





	Deep Fear

Dunya held Alessa’s hand as she sat at the barbecue pit, listening to her girlfriend talk to her friends. Dunya wasn’t sure why Alessa needed so many friends, she preferred allies herself, but it made her girlfriend happy. Dunya made a mental note to put these people last on her ‘list of people to kill’.

“Come on, let’s go into the water!” someone suddenly suggested, standing up. The others all agreed and got to their feet as well, taking off boots and sneakers and ballet flats (which were not good horse-riding attire, and Dunya wondered how some humans could be so strange as to wear shoes that were improperly-fitted to the task of horse riding).

“Are you coming?” asked Alessa, breaking Dunya out of her thoughts.

“Hm? Yes, I’m coming,” said Dunya. She took off her riding boots, leaving them near Copperclash (she knew that her horse wouldn’t eat her shoes, he had been trained better than that), and followed Alessa down to the shoreline. For some reason, as she stepped onto the squishy wet sand, Dunya’s heart started to race. But she ignored it, figuring that it was another of those human emotions that she couldn’t figure out, and stepped deeper into the water. Now ankle-deep, her knees started to shake.

Alessa waded out deeper, and was standing with her friends, chatting and splashing about. Dunya tried to wade deeper, but something stopped her. Her legs were just shaking too much to move.

“Stop that,” Dunya muttered to her legs, and tried to move again. They wouldn’t budge, and now her heart was racing even faster. She could hear it in her ears. All she could see was water everywhere, and suddenly she couldn’t breathe and-

“Are you okay?” asked Alessa, suddenly standing in front of her and taking Dunya’s shaking hands in her own. “You’re shaking.”

“I’m fine,” said Dunya, but her voice sounded shaky. Darkness seemed to encroach on her vision, no matter how much she blinked and shook her head to get rid of it.

“Oh, you can’t swim, I forgot,” said Alessa. “Don’t worry, the water’s pretty shallow. You’ll be fine, and I’ll be with you. Now come on, and I can teach you to swim later.” She pulled on Dunya’s arm, and Dunya stumbled forward a step, her legs buckling beneath her.

“No!” Dunya screamed, scrabbling backwards as the water washed over her legs. She panted once she was free and retreated further up the beach. The humans in the water were staring and talking amongst themselves, and Dunya wondered if Alessa would mind if she changed her mind about killing them.

Dunya trembled and panted as she sat there, her heart still racing and tears in her eyes. The very thought of learning to swim had made her chest feel tight.

“Oh, I see now,” said Alessa gently as she sat down beside her girlfriend. Dunya hugged her knees to her chest, and Alessa stroked some of Dunya’s short hair behind her ear.

“What?” asked Dunya, her voice tight from how tight her chest still was. Maybe it was her bra, but Alessa had informed her that taking it off in public would be very bad. She rubbed her chest anyway, trying to get rid of some of the tightness.

“You’re afraid of the water,” said Alessa. “That’s okay, and perfectly understandable.”

“What? No I’m not, I’m not afraid of anything,” said Dunya, glad to feel anger because that was an emotion that she knew.

“It’s okay to be afraid of this,” said Alessa. “You were trapped under the water for centuries, it makes sense for you to fear it.”

“So this… tightness in my chest, and trouble breathing, and shaking, and I couldn’t move, it’s just because of that wet stuff?” asked Dunya, pointing at the seemingly-innocent expanse of blue.

“Yes,” said Alessa. Dunya growled, even though she felt like crying.

“And I can’t set fire to it, can I?” asked Dunya.

“No,” said Alessa, wiping away one of Dunya’s tears. Dunya turned her head away, humiliated.

“Take me home,” said Dunya. “And don’t you dare tell your friends that I’m scared of the water.”

“I’ll tell them you got sick or something,” said Alessa.

“I can’t get sick,” said Dunya. At least, she was pretty sure that she couldn’t get sick. It wasn’t like she’d tested it.

Alessa took Dunya home as she’d asked, and Dunya immediately laid down on the bed and cuddled Alessa close to her. Her chest didn’t feel as tight when Alessa was in her arms. And the feeling of happiness spread through her. That and love, as Alessa stroked her hair.

And Alessa didn’t leave, even when Dunya fell asleep and awoke from a nightmare of crushing darkness and water everywhere and the screams of everyone onboard the ship as it sat on the ocean floor for centuries. Alessa didn’t even move when Dunya screamed and sobbed into her shoulder, she just rubbed her girlfriend’s back and reminded her that it would be okay.

Of course, later on, Dunya would act like nothing had happened. And so would Alessa, because it was an unspoken agreement. The ocean and other bodies of water, however, were completely off-limits and could not be trusted.


End file.
